Change is No Longer Project-based Work. It is Part of Everyday Routine.
One of the key messages of Gartner's 2026 CHRO report already articulated by many is that change is no longer a project, but a permanent state.
The question is no longer whether change will happen, but whether the organization is capable of repeatedly adapting, learning, and moving forward without burning out in the process.
Change is no longer a project that we manage.
Permanent change requires a mindset shift and a conscious effort to ensure that
👉 the capability for change becomes an organizational resource,
👉 it is not carried by just a few key people or a single team,
👉 it does not require constant new momentum, but becomes a natural response.
What we see today:
organizations operate with too many parallel changes, continuously
people become exhausted by the many change projects,
many leaders are driven primarily by results, meeting project KPIs under short-term performance pressure,
learning, adaptation, and emotional processing are present but invisible, and the work associated with them does not always receive recognition or support.
Change is present, continuous, and must be part of everyday operations, not treated as a project.
👉The organization learns reflexively from situations; leaders support adaptation, facilitate and enable the work, and allow people to solve problems where they arise or where they are needed (e.g. self-organizing teams).
👉Change is not treated as an extra burden or a separate project, but as part of everyday work, and operations are aligned accordingly.
According to Gartner, the role of leaders is fundamentally changing, too: their primary task is not only to inspire change, but to make change a routine. The likelihood of healthy change adoption is three times higher when change becomes a natural part of daily operations.
My insights based on Gartner's recommendations
1. Redefining expectations toward leaders
Expectations related to change management should be embedded into leadership performance criteria, competency models, and leadership development programs.
2. Identifying the core competencies required for change
Determine which change-related competencies are most critical. Organizations need to consciously define which change management skills are indispensable for them not in general terms, but tailored to their own operations.
- What types of change are typical for us?
- Where do we most often get stuck?
- Who plays a key role in change?
Not all change competencies are equally important in every organization. Effective operation requires setting priorities and building development and support around them.
These competencies should primarily be practiced and applied in everyday work, in real situations so they become a routine.
3. Supporting the recognition, handling, and processing of different emotional states with tools
Organizational change is not only a rational, professional process; a wide range of emotions are continuously present, influencing progress and success.
Even when change is heading in a positive direction, people may simultaneously experience uncertainty, fear, frustration, a sense of loss, or resistance.
It is critical for organizations to consciously support emotional processing, not just task execution.
This is why tools and frameworks are needed to help leaders and employees recognize or surface what they are feeling. Many people are not used to articulating emotions in a workplace context.
Useful tools can include, for example:
- simple emotion maps or scales,
- check-in questions at the beginning of meetings,
- anonymous pulse surveys that measure emotional states, not only satisfaction.
The goal is not therapy, but increasing emotional awareness.
👉 Understand what triggers these emotions
Emotions always have underlying causes:
• uncertainty about roles, • lack of information, • a sense of loss of control, • previous negative experiences with similar changes.
👉 If we understand the triggers, we can decide how to handle these emotions.
The goal is not to eliminate negative emotions, but to ensure people are not left alone with them and can receive support.
This requires:
- developing leaders' emotional intelligence,
- consciously building psychological safety,
- coaching, mentoring, and peer support,
- legitimizing that adaptation requires time and energy.
It is important that leaders not only manage the change as a project, but also support people in how they experience the change.
Learning, adaptation, and emotional processing are not weaknesses, they are among the most important conditions for successful change.
4. Clarifying the role of leaders during change
👉Following the change journey by
- Monitoring where people are in understanding and acceptance; where they are stuck; when more support, clarification, or slowing down is needed.
- Making invisible work visible.
- Relying on feedback and signals, not only KPIs.
- Enabling course correction along the way.
During change, people:
- learn new roles, processes, and decision situations,
- experience uncertainty,
- make mistakes, which are a natural part of learning.
This mindset shift supports learning and adaptation instead of demanding immediate perfection. During change, we do not expect flawless performance, but learning and development.
In practice, this means:
- accepting that new ways of working are initially difficult and not always efficient,
- allowing space for experimentation and mistakes,
- supporting adaptation through feedback and guidance.
Expecting immediate perfection creates fear, performance pressure, and invisible overload; supporting learning creates safety, engagement, and real integration.
5. Making change a daily routine
Gartner emphasizes that change becomes truly effective and sustainable when it is not treated as a separate project, campaign, or extra task, but embedded into everyday operations.
This means change is not a temporary effort, but a continuous practice, a baseline state.
👉 Leaders' daily behavior is key.
Change doesn't happen in slides, communication campaigns, or kick-off meetings, but through
- what leaders ask about every day,
- what they reward,
- what they ignore,
- what they react to immediately and what they don't
- .
If leaders only ask about results and not about the why and how, adaptation is pushed into the background. If they allow time and space for learning and development, change becomes embedded.
👉 Creating recurring patterns
Change becomes routine when
- it is regularly revisited in meetings: "What is already working from the new way of operating?",
- it becomes a natural part of decision-making: "How does this support the new direction?",
- it is embedded in operating rhythms (meetings, check-ins, performance reviews).
Organizations become truly adaptable when leaders consistently reinforce the same patterns, learning, adaptation, and feedback become daily routines, and change is treated not as a campaign, but as a habit.
🎁 Solution-focused questions for organizations
❓ Where do we currently experience the greatest change fatigue in the organization? Where is more support needed?
❓ What do we consider good leadership performance during change? What do we reward?
❓ How clear is it for people where we are in a given change not only at the beginning and the end, but during the journey?
❓ Whose learning, adaptation, and emotional processing work do we recognize during change and how do we do so?
❓ Who are the key people working invisibly in the background whose contribution is essential to the success of change? How do we recognize them?
❓ Which change-supporting competencies do we need to develop?
❓ What learning and processing spaces do we provide for change?
💡Suggestions to organizations
1. Embed change management into leadership expectations
Measure not only what leaders achieve, but also: how they involve people, how they handle resistance, how they support learning. Include questions in performance reviews such as:
"What did you do to help your team adapt?"
2. Identify critical change competencies, but don't try to develop everything at once.
- Select 3–4 key competencies without which change does not work in your organization.
- Build leadership workshops and real-situation learning around these.
- Focus on practice, not just training.
3. Make the emotional side of change visible Introduce simple tools and methods:
- meeting check-ins,
- emotion scales,
- short pulse surveys.
Important: emotions don't need to be solved, they need space.
4. Recognize invisible work
Reward not only outcomes, but also learning, adaptation, course corrections.
5. Align operating rhythms with change
- Ensure change is addressed in regular meeting agendas, decision-making, performance conversations.
- Make the change process visible. Not only the goal.
- Communicate not only what and why, but also: where we are now, what is already working, what is still in learning or testing. This reduces uncertainty and resistance.
6. Train leaders in change facilitation, not just direction
A leader's role is not to:
❌ solve everything
❌ have all the answers
But to:
✔ ask questions,
✔ maintain boundaries, framework,
✔ help make sense of the situation,
✔ create space for learning.
Focus on:
- emotionally intelligent leadership,
- psychological safety,
- reflective questioning techniques.
7. Prioritize consciously
Not every project or change can be equally urgent and important. Regularly review:
- which changes create real value,
- which can be delayed, paused, or combined.
🎁 Solution-focused self-reflection questions for leaders
❓ How does my team react to change emotionally and what do I see in their behaviour?
❓How do I respond? What do I say? What do I do?
❓ Where do I unconsciously expect immediate perfection instead of learning? What / Where should I change?
❓How can I help my team adapt?
❓ Do my people know that it's okay not to be good at everything right away? That learning, asking, and making mistakes are acceptable? How do I reinforce this?
❓ How do I know that my team is learning and developing?
💡 Tips for leaders
1. Follow the change journey, not only the results.
Notice:
- where people get stuck,
- where they are uncertain,
- where slowing down or reprioritizing is needed.
2. Normalize learning and mistakes.
3. Work consciously with emotions.
Recognize and surface team members' emotions, normalize them, don't minimize them. Work with emotions together; if needed, involve external support.
4. Shift focus from solving to supporting
Regularly ask your team: "What do you need right now?"
5. Change routine through your own behavior: what you ask, what you reward, what you ignore.